Veggie pancakes

Lauren and Jake asked for more pancakes a few days ago but instead of doing the same kind, I thought it'd be fun to prepare a different kind of pancake. So, we got to work on this recipe:

We cut the veggies,

dumped them in a bowl,

added some ingredients, 

and then mixed and stirred.

 I cooked them for a few minutes on each side and served them with dip. Voila!

They obviusly weren't sweet like pancakes but they were still yummy, esp. with the dip.

It takes a bit of prep work but anytime I can get my kiddos to eat veggies I'm all for it!

PreK cooking; Graduation Caps

In light of the kids graduating from their class, I made this extra special treat for cooking lat week. I try to keep the lessons pretty healthy with fruits and veggies but this time, I made an exception and we used lots and lots of chocolate! I'm sure the teachers loved me that afternoon ;)

We started with some cupcakes I had made previously that morning. They flipped them upside down, added a dab of chocolate frosting as the glue, attached a chocolate graham cracker to the top, added another dollop of frosting and finally, added a Sour Candy Straw as the tassels:

It was special, that's for sure :)

 

The plan was to take summer off but the kids asked me to continue doing it during summer school (again, they begged to go because the focus will be on FUN!). So looks like I'm continuing cooking lessons this summer and I'll be doing cooking based on the themes... ocean, animals, etc. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Instant banana pudding

We love using the Kinder Krunchie cookbook for kids. So yesterday when my kiddos wanted to cook, I grabbed the book and found a recipe with the ingredients on hand. Thankfully, this recipe didn't call for much because that's exactly what I had :)

Directions:

1) Mash 1/2 small banana:

2) Add 2 T. applesauce:

3) Stir in plain yogurt (we had greek yogurt and it turned out great):

4) Add a shake of cinnamon (this wasn't in the cookbook but cinnamon makes everything better):

5) Stir it up:

6) EAT!

And while they inhaled and Megan sprayed my kitchen with banana pudding fed herself,  I asked a few questions provided in the cookbook:
1) What does instant mean?
2) What does 1/2 mean?
3) Where do bananas grow?
4) Where does applesauce come from?
Next up... Veggie pancakes. Sounds delish, no? We shall see ;)

Princess Tea Party 2012

A few months ago during a LLC day, my girl Mandy had a great idea about doing a Mothers Day tea with our daughters. So we began planning and that day finally came on Saturday. And oh what a day it was :)

Lauren woke up and we checked the mail... turns out, there was a special tea party invitation in the mail for her! (us mama's got together the week before and crafted them):

So she got ready in her Princess best, and we went on a special mommy-daughter date while daddy took care of the little two.

When we arrived, all of Lauren's friends and their mommy's were there... in their Princess best too :)

After mingling for a few minutes, Mandy's mom sat the girls down in front of the door and read them a story. Moments later, a knock on the door...

and there were surprised faces all around!

Turns out, Rapunzel came to our tea party too!

Once the girlies were able to contain their excitement, Rapunzel asked if they wanted her to paint their faces and shocker... they did!

Most of the girls asked for flowers or hearts or frilly things... not my girl. She asked for a cat, haha! Rapunzel wasn't skilled at cat painting so Lauren settled for a butterfly mask. A perfect second choice for a little girl enamoured with bugs  ;)

While they were waiting in line to get their faces painted, they also made some crowns with glitter glue, stickers, jewels, etc..

 and had Rapunzel's helper apply Princess tattoos:

After the face painting, crown decorating and tattoos, the girls sat by Rapunzel as told them the Tangled story and sang them three songs from the movie. She had a gorgeous voice and the girls were absolutely mesmerized by her!

By this time, we were all getting pretty hungry so we headed to our tea party. The party was set up beautifully and each little girl got their own special tea set sitting in their spot:

We had SO much yummy food; finger sandwiches (Nutella/strawberry/marshmallow, egg salad, chicken salad croissants), artichoke and mozzarella toast, veggies and dip, fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries, pink princess cupcakes, scones, petite fours, and pink lemonade with strawberries and raspberries:

It was such a special day for our girls (and for us mama's too). I think it's safe to say that they all felt very special, loved and appreciated, which was exactly the point ;)

PS- Mandy, thanks for making this all happen. Truly a memorable gift you enabled us to give to our girlies. Love you girl.